Red tape stifling Falklands expansion

By David Brown, Fisheries Editor

12:00AM BST 13 Jul 2000

RED tape of the kind that has become a nightmare for companies in Britain and other European Union countries is threatening to stifle new enterprises in the Falkland Islands, businessmen said yesterday.

A conference in London designed to boost inward investment to the islands heard that a project to produce canned oysters, smoked fish and other high-value foods in a new processing plant at Port Stanley, the capital, had been baulked by problems raised by the government's planners.

Terry Betts, a Falklands-born director of Falklands Fresh Ltd, a local joint venture subsidiary of the Spanish-owned Golden Touza company, complained that the islands' planners had been "very unhelpful" about the plant, which is being built in prefabricated sections and is scheduled to be sent from Spain within weeks.

But planners are still not satisfied with the scheme despite months of negotiations. Although a British protectorate, the islands are exempt from most Brussels regulations although they must comply with EU standards for food exports. He said: "We are investing about £200,000 in the new plant and we have done all we can to comply with health, safety and environmental conditions. But still we have problems, even though we are talking about a relatively small plant employing a handful of people."

Hamish Wylie, president of the Falkland Islands Chamber of Commerce, admitted that other businessmen were also worried about increasing red tape as the Falklands (population 2,300) faced a range of developments to secure the long-term economic future of the islands. He said: "There is concern that we might get too many regulations."

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Michael Blanch, chief executive of the Falkland Islands government, said part of the trouble was that housing in Port Stanley (population 1,800) had increased by about 60 per cent in four years and residents were becoming more sensitive about industrial developments nearby.